B for Bade


After I was asked to write about my work, I realized that it would be a difficult task and rather a dangerous one too. How could I describe my feelings, ideas, guesses? How could I write about things like where my art comes from or where I want to take it? Written words carry an enormous weight in Western society, and here I am writing about visual art. Words can trigger an array of judgments that are just waiting to be made, stereotypes just waiting to be formed. But then, I use written language in my work precisely because I am aware of the considerable power words have to communicate and to stimulate the imagination.
I decided to take the alphabet as my starting point and see what each letter suggested to me at that moment in time.

A. Stands for “Always keeping it real!”—a cliché hip-hop lyric. In my work I try to keep things real (whatever that might be). But it’s not enough, which inspired me to write “Always Keeping It Really?!” on one of my works. I was playing on the meanings of “real” and “really” and the kind of standard response people give in conversation. I don’t want to explain further because words kill meaning all too easily…


The full text is published in "tema celeste" No. 84, March-April 2001.




David Bade